2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
6 pm arrivals, 7 pm ceremony, 8 pm dinner and dessert
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Cocktail Attire
An Event to Remember for Contemporary Fiction Lovers
Our 46th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration on May 6, 2026 will honor this year’s distinguished books and authors. This exquisite literary evening featured presentations by our judges; meaningful commentary by our winner and four finalists; and a celebration of Willee Lewis, our 2026 PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
HONOREES
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists
Addie E. Citchens
Quiara Alegría Hudes
Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Lily King
Mahreen Sohail
PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion
Willee Lewis
SPECIAL GUESTS
2026 Judges
Samantha Hunt
Tania James
De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Master of Ceremonies
Ron Charles
Featured Speaker
Kay Kendall
CO-CHAIRS
Lisa Barry & James Gale
Katherine Boone & Joshua Geltzer
Julie & Jon Garcia
Kay Kendall & Jack Davies
SPONSORS
Anne Aaron
Aldridge Borden
Anonymous (2)
Deborah Taylor Ashford
Wendy Benchley & John Jeppson
Bloomsbury
Alexandra de Borchgrave
Melinda & John Buntin
Catapult Book Group
Holly & Andrew Clubok
Susan Coll & Paul Goldberg
Jonathan Coopersmith & Lisa Halperin
Nelson Cunningham
DC Writers Room
Becky Eason
East City Bookshop
Field Recordings
Lauren Francis-Sharma & Anand Sharma
Elizabeth & Paul L. Friedman
The Garcia Family Spotlight Foundation
Susan Ginsburg & Mario Velasquez
Emily & David Glendinning
Hank & Carol Brown Goldberg
Grove Atlantic
Hachette Book Group
Linette S. Hwu
Ingram Content Group
The Ivy Bookshop
Knight’s Gambit Vineyard
Kramers
Laura & Jonathan Kravis
Margaret Rood Lenzner
Meredith Light
Loyalty Books
Tamera Luzzatto & Alpheus Fair
Sophia McCrocklin & William Isaacson
Tracy & Gregory McGillivary
Malcolm & Virginia O’Hagan
Lisa & Clarence Page
The Paz Fund
Lynn & David Pearle
Nicole Petrosky & De Margo “Kali” Hopson
Politics & Prose
Wendy Ponvert & Harold Rosen
Susan S. Rappaport
Diana Rojas
Elizabeth Shreve & Rusty Greiff
Shreve Williams Public Relations
Joan H. Simmons
Lucretia Dewey Tanner
Ericka Taylor
Martha Anne Toll & Daniel Becker
Annie Simonian Totah
Jean & Donald Wolf
Wonderland Books
This list is current as of March 26, 2026.
Our 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists
Dominion
2026 PEN/Faulkner Award FinalistAddie E. Citchens was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and lives in New Orleans. A graduate of Jackson State University, she studied in the Florida State University Creative Writing Program and the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop....
The White Hot
2026 PEN/Faulkner Award FinalistQuiara Alegría Hudes is an American writer. Her work includes the Pulitzer Prize winning play Water by the Spoonful, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical and major motion picture In the Heights, the animated film Vivo, and the essay...
The Sisters
2026 PEN/Faulkner Award FinalistJonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of six novels, seven plays, and a collection of short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages. The Family Clause was a finalist for the National Book Award for...
Heart the Lover
2026 PEN/Faulkner Award FinalistLily King is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Euphoria and Writers & Lovers, and the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize,...
Small Scale Sinners
2026 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist Mahreen Sohail was born in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar, and was a Writing Fellow at A Public Space and a Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East...
OUR 2026 PEN/FAULKNER LITERARY CHAMPION
Willee Lewis
Willee Lewis studied English literature and education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and taught English, writing, and drama in a number of settings, including ten years as a high school instructor at the Washington International School. During a four-decade membership on the PEN/Faulkner Board of Directors, she served two terms as President. The editor of Snakes: An Anthology of Serpent Tales, Lewis served as a member of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future of the DC Library System in 2005-2006, and she remains active in several Washington-based charities and arts organizations.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES
Ron Charles
Ron Charles writes about books and publishing, most recently for The Washington Post. For a dozen years, he enjoyed teaching American literature and critical theory in the Midwest. Before moving to the District, he edited the books section of the Christian Science Monitor in Boston. His wife is an English teacher and the cinematographer of their satirical series, “The Totally Hip Video Book Review.” His awards include the Louis Shores Award for reviewing from the American Library Association, the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle, and First Place for Arts & Entertainment Commentary from the Society for Features Journalism in 2011. He was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
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